Fixing The Bread Recipes (I Hope)

Of all the recipes I've ever published, the most problematic by far are my recipes for yeast-raised bread. The email I get regarding these recipes is split pretty much evenly between "OMG, this is wonderful!" and "I can't get this to rise for love nor money." And when you're working with expensive ingredients like nut meal and protein powder, having your bread recipe fail is nearly more than a body can bear.

They all have worked great for me, you understand, or I wouldn't have published them. Heck, some of them I had to modify the recipe because they were not only rising, but blowing the top right off my bread machine.

Baking in general is the touchiest form of cooking, because it's really chemistry. An extra quarter-cup of onion in the meatloaf, an off-size can of tomatoes in the soup, no big deal; the results will still be fine. But baking? Sheesh. I was brought up on the stories of my grandfather who, after grandma died, decided to make his own banana bread. He followed the recipe in the cookbook grandma always used, but thought that just a teaspoon of baking powder sounded awfully meager. I disremember how much extra he added, but he wound up scraping banana bread dough off the floor of the oven.

And bread baking is chemistry and biology combined! There are just so many different factors that can make a difference, that I can't know exactly what went wrong in any given case. But here are some things that make a difference:

* Your yeast. Yeast is a living thing, and it has a limited shelf-life, even if you keep the packets in the refrigerator. If you can't remember when you bought your yeast, this could well be the problem. Dead yeast = flat bread.

* Your water. Hard water can make it harder for bread to rise.

* Quantity of salt. Without salt, bread tastes flat, but too much will keep it from rising altogether. Measure carefully.

* The weather. Bread tends to rise better on sunny days.

* Your dry ingredients. Dry ingredients still have water content, and the water content of your dry ingredients may be different from the water content of my dry ingredients. This will change the texture of the dough, and affect the rise.

I've figured out a way to make sure the texture of the dough is right, at any rate. This will solve a lot of problems. Here's how:

When you make my bread recipes in your bread machine, do not simply put the ingredients in your bread machine, turn it on, and walk away. Instead, turn on the machine and let it knead the dough for three or four minutes. Then open the lid and look at your dough ball.

How does it look? Is it sticking to the sides of the bread case, and “puddling” at the bottom? It’s too wet. Add more of the dry ingredients (vital wheat gluten, flour, bran, protein powder, nut meal) 1 tablespoon at a time. Sprinkle a tablespoon of one of those dry ingredients over the dough ball, and let the machine knead it in before you decide if you need more. If you do, add a little of the next dry ingredient – you’re keeping your proportions right. When the dough forms a cohesive ball, it’s right, and you can close the machine and walk away.

If you look at your dough ball and it’s breaking into a couple of lumps instead of forming one ball, or if it’s leaving dry flour behind, your dough is too dry. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of water over the dough ball, and let the machine knead it in. Repeat until you have a single soft, cohesive ball that picks up all the flour. Then you can close the machine and walk away.

Or you could just order bread from Natural Ovens or Julian Bakery. Or -- gasp! -- live without bread.